Biography of F. A. Michaiix. 163 



name appears for tlie first time on tlie date of May 6th, as accom- 

 panying his father in his exploration to the sources of the Keovee 

 river. In the next spring, he is seen again with him, journeying 

 into the interior of Florida, He is afterwards mentioned several 

 times, as being retained at the Charleston Nursery, either oa 

 account of ill health, or intrusted with the management of the 

 plantation^ during the journeys of his indefatigable and ever- 

 moving father. 



In the further perusal of the manuscript, I learn^ at the date 

 of the 20th of September, 1789, that, on that day, his son walk- 

 ing along the road, was hit by a man shooting at partridges, and 

 that a grain of shot had penetrated his left eye, below the pupil. 

 From that date to December following, he occasionally speaks 

 of the state of his son, of the treatment apph'ed to his case, and, 

 especially, of the great despondency of mind in which the patient 

 had fallen, from the apprehension of losing his eye. But, here 

 again we arrive at the third lost fasciculus, and I cannot ascer- 

 tain the final result of the accident, nor at what time, precisely, 

 young ilichaux returned to France. 



His return must have taken place in the first three months of 

 1790, for, in the manuscript of the following year, on the 17th 

 of January, the elder Michaux acknowledges the receipt of a 

 letter from his son, dated Paris, April, 1790, but nothii _ 

 is said about the wounded eye. To that accident, which is nots 

 generally known, may be attributed the partial deprivation of 

 sight with which Michaux was afflicted. 



Young Michaux therefore reached his country at the very out- 

 break of the French revolution, in which he is said to have 

 warmly sympathized with the republican party. Such a course 

 was not, perhaps, expected from one who had been brought up 

 on a royal domain, and was, to a certain degree, indebted to 

 royal munificence. But, on the other hand^ how could the feel- 

 ings of this generous and impressible young man be otherwise 

 enlisted? His exalted patriotism, his ambition to serve his 

 country, his frank and bold temper; his love of liberty, which 

 he had imbibed in this free and happy land— all these together 

 must have raised his sf)irits to a high pitch, in conjunction with 

 the vexation he experienced when, on his return, he scarcely 

 found a few remnants of the several hundred thousand young 

 trees, which his father and himself had reared, in their American 

 nurseries, and sent home for the particular benefit of his country. 



g more 



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perial father of Austria; the rest had been squandered among 

 the minions of the court, to embellish their grounds, or shame 

 fully neglected in the royal nurseries of Rambouillet. ^ 



In the mean time, the elder Michaux was continuing his ex 

 plorations in North America. He travelled in all directions 



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